04
SIX YEARS AT THE HELM
DAILY NEWS
CAN EUROPE’S E-COMMERCE BOOM OFFSET CHINA’S SLOWDOWN?
After six years steering TIACA through transformation and turbulence, Steven Polmans is stepping away from his role as Chair. Under his tenure, TIACA
embraced a business-drive approach that allowed the company to be reactive and agile. This proved critical given the turbulence that followed during the Covid-19 years, economic disruption and geopolitical challenges that hit the industry. “The flexibility we have, the
agility we have, it’s in our DNA,” he explained. “Air cargo has always been growing when their has been stable economic growth or when there was disruption because that’s when people need air cargo, so one way or another we are impacted by it and need to be ready to respond.” While walking away from the
organisation proud of what he accomplished, Polmans was clear that it could not have been done without the backing of a diverse TIACA board and the Director- General Glyn Hughes. “You need a strong, balanced
team with different qualities. We rebuilt governance so that every region and vertical has a voice. “Having Glyn coming on board
was really lucky, it just matched timing wise and we got along really well. I’ve had discussions with Glyn that lasted hours because we could really discuss, argue, disagree but in the end we would go for the same result and if you can do that it’s magic.”
G
lobal airfreight demand continues its remarkable run, but beneath the surface, trade
flows are being redrawn. Speaking
at the Air Cargo Forum 2025 in Abu Dhabi, Ryan Keyrouse, CEO and Founder of Rotate,
unpacked how the rise of Southeast Asia and Europe’s e-commerce surge are reshaping the industry’s balance of power. “2025 continues to be the year that fails to disappoint in terms of demand,” Keyrouse noted. Air cargo volumes
dig deeper and you see lanes out of Vietnam and Malaysia already at capacity pressure.” Keyrouse
said the long-predicted China + 1
diversification is now “fully visible in the data.” Exports from China to the US are down roughly 30 percent, while outbound volumes from Southeast Asia have climbed 48 percent. “Within weeks of new tariffs, networks were re- routed,” he explained. “Freighters shifted south, and even European imports from the region picked up.” Chinese airlines are adapting by building hub-and-
spoke models to cope with added complexity. Freighter utilisation, meanwhile, remains near record highs of about 15 block hours per day — a sign, he said, that “capacity is being sweated efficiently, even as new aircraft join the fleet.”
“Even tariff shocks and regional disruptions
have merely redirected trade — not reduced it.”
The new growth story While the transpacific slowdown dominates headlines, Keyrouse
pointed to an overlooked
counterweight:
Europe’s 62 percent surge in e-commerce imports, adding more than 200,000 tonnes of extra demand.
“People
assume Europe’s growth only offsets the US decline — it doesn’t,” he emphasised. “Consumers are driving genuine, sustained demand. It’s a structural shift, not a seasonal spike.” Despite softening yields (-4 percent
year-on-year),
have now grown for 26 consecutive months — one of the longest upcycles on record. Global volumes rose 3.9 percent year-on-year, while capacity expanded 6 percent. “Those headline figures sound balanced,” he said, “but
www.aircargoweek.com
profitability has held steady thanks to lower fuel prices and high load factors. “The industry’s resilience is striking,” Keyrouse concluded. “Even tariff shocks and regional disruptions have merely redirected trade — not reduced it.” As production footprints evolve and consumers click
‘buy’ across new borders, air cargo’s center of gravity is clearly on the move - and e-commerce may prove the force that keeps its wings aloft.
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